FFXIV's Future

[Lium]

There's an interesting article over on MassivelyOP today that talks about how this game may end. Not story-wise, but in general. It used FFXI as a comparison, a game that is still around but is in a quiet maintenance mode.

And it got me thinking.

According to the forums, of course, this game is terrible and in real danger of dying despite the fact that the real world outside of these forums objectively goes against that grim assessment. (The game keeps wracking up awards and more importantly, is still growing in population, as the article points out. Which is the only metric that really matters.)

Now, these forums are not unique in its negativity. Pretty much all games, specifically MMOs, have pretty awful forum communities. The only other MMO I've played that had a decent forum community was LOTRO, but that was a long time ago. I have no idea how their forums might be today. (That truly was a great community, though. From top to bottom.)

And here's the point. I read a lot on here about how the game is too easy, how SE isn't really trying anymore, etc. Yet on the forums and subreddits of other MMOs, such as WoW and ESO, they consistently praise FFXIV's accessibility. They do complain about features being locked behind the story, but they give the game high marks for not being raid-focused and for having dungeons that are relatively easy to complete.

But that relative ease of the game is exactly what people here complain about. The very things that have made FFXIV the current market leader are the things people here would like to see changed. Which honestly makes me very grateful none of you are running SE

I am curious, though. Based on everything I've read here, what do you really want to see in FFXIV's future? Keeping in mind that everything they've done up to this point has REVERSED the trend that FFXI followed in terms of hitting a downward slope after the fourth expansion. Shadowbringers brought more people to the game.

But what would you change that would honestly help the game overall? Not just for a subset of hardcore players?

[Mcg55ss]

You have remember the people that complain on forums are in reality a very very very small part of the community. Majority of the people are just playing the game and finding enjoyment in these things. The only thing I say they should fix some of the future is the criterion dungeon rewards there's limited replayability vs WoW mythic + which scales infinite and can reward pieces that are raid quality. Do I think they need reward gear no, but maybe make it a scaling thing as well and reward a transmog set and weapon for getting so high.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I always do find that interesting that alot of people like to say "FFXIV needs to be like WoW or (Insert game here)". But then the people on those games Praise FFXIV for what it does.
(But of course point out things that can be improved)

Personally for me, I dont want the game to become more hardcore, but at the same time I think, and would like there to be more Tank and Healer Responsibility.
Id love more mechanics tailored to them to diversify the fights abit. Also I cant believe Im saying this,...but different arena shapes, and mechanics to go with that.
I cant say if this would hurt or improve the game, but thats something Id like in the future, even with just EX / Savage Content

[GTK0HLK]

But that relative ease of the game is exactly what people here complain about. The very things that have made FFXIV the current market leader are the things people here would like to see changed. Which honestly makes me very grateful none of you are running SE

Gotta be careful how you phrase things, people will assume you haven't given the Threads a chance, and see that everyone here has their own opinions.

and the majority if the subjective topics, everyone isnt on the same grounds.
Be fully for/against/middle/no horse in the race.

Topic is too broad to actively say what one can improve..,
Most of it is just debating how it should be done/could.

[Connor]

Honestly for me I don’t mind much of the same. From what I understand the game is still doing extremely well so I don’t imagine they would make any significant changes.

The only thing I’d really like for classes to more ways to actively support the party like we used to have lol, like Bard’s Foe Requiem or Scholar’s Fey Wind.

Personally I also don’t think there’s any issue with ‘accessibility’ or ‘simplicity’, or otherwise ‘easy’ things. I’m more interested in whether it’s fun or not lol. Though I can’t say whether I’m alone or not in that. I do think it’d be fun if they released some ‘high difficulty’ normal fights, like for the last fight in a normal raid for example, but I don’t think there’s a major issue with difficulty in general/normal content (i.e expert roulettes, alliance raids, Pandemonium etc)

[Mcg55ss]

I always do find that interesting that alot of people like to say "FFXIV needs to be like WoW or (Insert game here)". But then the people on those games Praise FFXIV for what it does.
(But of course point out things that can be improved)

Personally for me, I dont want the game to become more hardcore, but at the same time I think, and would like there to be more Tank and Healer Responsibility.
Id love more mechanics tailored to them to diversify the fights abit. Also I cant believe Im saying this,...but different arena shapes, and mechanics to go with that.
I cant say if this would hurt or improve the game, but thats something Id like in the future, even with just EX / Savage Content

I do think healer needs something to do when everyone is topped off, a 2 button dps rotation with a proc chance and dot might be nice or idk something.

[RitsukoSonoda]

IMO entertaining as this game is from a story/lore standpoint I cannot really call this an RPG due to nearly every staple RPG mechanic being stripped from it combined with job role homogenization and excessive simplification of duty designs to supposedly make the game more "accessible". As it stands now 4 player duties feel like I've already played them before when doing them the first time after a content update adds them. Follow the 1 path. Kill 2 trash packs then boss then 2 more trash packs then boss then the last 2 trash packs then last boss. 8 Player raids have just turned into a 2nd set of 8 player trials. The mechanical creativity we saw back in ARR has all but disappeared.

FFXI is still around despite being just over 20 years old. Despite being intentionally made "difficult" in order to promote more player interaction within the game. It retained nearly every staple RPG mechanic seen in the FF series (missing things being stuff like casting raise on undead to instantly kill them) while adding it's own quirks to some enemies like causing bomb type enemies to immediately attempt to self destruct if you cast magic on them twice that matches the element of the game's day or the infamous tonberry rancor used for Everyone's Grudge/Everyone's Rancor. It also featured horizontal progression with expansions and content updates that expanded the player's options for builds while keeping gear relevant for end game content exponentially longer than what we have in FFXIV. Jobs weren't as homogenized in FFXI because the enemies in the game had variable resistances, weaknesses, and immunities that could create different opportunities for each job to shine.

IMO when they finally do retire FFXI completely it needs to be done after another MMO entry to the FF series is made that puts the RPG back into MMORPG. Keeping the mechanics and options of FFXI but providing a new story/world, updated graphics (FFXI was originally a PS2 game afterall), and an updated interface. The other thing that's been weighing on my mind in regards to SE's MMO online ventures as they've had multiple going at the same time for awhile with paid subs is the thought that they should drop the individual title subs and just do something like an SE Online subscription that covers access for all their online titles. From their current catalog that would essentially be FFXI, FFXIV, and DQX. Possibly include other random things for other titles like a free random legendary item in Outriders each month. Doing something like that could possibly finally get the green light for DQX to become officially available outside of Japan and maybe get us a new Front Mission Online game.

TBH I don't feel like WoW should be seen as the "standard" for MMORPGs. The game wasn't bad. (though design choices done during expansions causing large drops in player base seem to hint periods where it was actually bad). However I feel like it's rise to popularity was more of a win for the Blizzard marketing department who bought up nearly every magazine and website ad space they could get their hands on, flooded TV with celebrity commercials, and flooded stores with WoW merch. It was literally like it was being forced down people's throats.

[drtasteyummy]

I think that eventually, every MMO suffers from expansions gouging the main game, ultimately leading to it being unable to compete with newer games. At that point, you theoretically have to decide to say, "Okay, let's stop here and produce Final Fantasy 17 Online. We'll take everything we learned from 14 and put it into this up 2 date game." However, if you tried to explain that to higher ups, they would laugh in your face for even suggesting putting the company at risk when the game is still popular. I'm not trying to suggest that Final Fantasy 14 is going to die because I definitely don't think that's true. However, resources will just be spent somewhere else.

[GTK0HLK]

I think that eventually, every MMO suffers from expansions gouging the main game, ultimately leading to it being unable to compete with newer games. At that point, you theoretically have to decide to say, "Okay, let's stop here and produce Final Fantasy 17 Online. We'll take everything we learned from 14 and put it into this up 2 date game." However, if you tried to explain that to higher ups, they would laugh in your face for even suggesting putting the company at risk when the game is still popular. I'm not trying to suggest that Final Fantasy 14 is going to die because I definitely don't think that's true. However, resources will just be spent somewhere else.

Pretty much..,
So much is in question right now..,
How much Focus did XVI take from XIV development.
How would the Change of CEO affect the next Years..,
How does the Graphics Update affect future systems/feedback? is it more that just visual?
Will XIV get more workers/funds injected to increase/support for the next 10 years..,

So much going on that affects many of topics..,

[TomsYoungerBro]

The very things that have made FFXIV the current market leader are the things people here would like to see changed.

FFXIV is not the current market leader. I think regardless of this, just because x game does something worse than FFXIV does not mean FFXIV does it perfectly. Gearing has been a wide discussion for a long time and the counterargument is always "Well WoW does it way worse". So? FFXIV's system is still also bad.

While there are a lot of bad suggestions on the forums, there are also a lot of good ones .